Dulwich village crash

[rollflick]

Saw this Saturday morning, hope no one was hurt. 

At least the pillar on the roundabout escaped unscathed, unlike the one in West Norwood featured in another post.

[Sue]

😮😮😮

[march46]

A deeply worrying sight. I really hope no one was hurt. 

[DulvilleRes]

This one from April this year - similarly, I hope no one was too badly hurt

 

...... and this one from August this year. This was a driver attempting to evade Police. 

 

 

[march46]

Thanks for the reminder of those similarly serious collisions @DulvilleRes. 
 

It’s time for road safety to become a real priority for local police. There’s plenty of discussion about “community safety”, but reckless and dangerous driving seems to go largely unchecked.

Where are the traffic officers stopping speeding, impaired, or drug-affected drivers? Why isn’t there consistent enforcement against obscured or fake number plates, or drivers using mobile phones?

It’s also concerning that at least one recent crash reportedly involved a police pursuit and drug search. It’s not hard to see the link between high-risk driving and wider criminal behaviour. Strong, visible traffic enforcement isn’t just about road safety - it’s about community safety in the broadest sense.

[Sue]

We don't (I presume, I might be wrong) know the cause of the latest crash.

It's easy to jump to conclusions.

The driver could have had a medical emergency.

Edited Sunday at 10:06 by Sue

[Penguin68]

A number of recent crashes appear to have happened late at night or in the early morning. It is more likely than at other times that these may be stolen cars or ones being used for crime. These are not, really, road safety issues, at least in the sense that it's all about good driving. And need different remedies. 

[malumbu]

That's a bit of an assumption.  Some will no doubt not be criminals escaping the police, but just people who are bad drivers.

[Sue]

Well unless we know the cause of each crash we can't really know if there is anything which could have been done to prevent it?

[Glemham]

Might it also be a result of drivers racing their cars as happens in other areas of London?

[malumbu]

You mean going over the speed limit?  That's fairly common.

[HeadNun]

On 26/10/2025 at 09:36, march46 said:

Thanks for the reminder of those similarly serious collisions @DulvilleRes. 
 

It’s time for road safety to become a real priority for local police. There’s plenty of discussion about “community safety”, but reckless and dangerous driving seems to go largely unchecked.

Where are the traffic officers stopping speeding, impaired, or drug-affected drivers? Why isn’t there consistent enforcement against obscured or fake number plates, or drivers using mobile phones?

 

This is what Roads Policing does and they are pretty pro-active. Units are out all the time, responding to ANPR hits, which alert them to stolen vehicles and cars with cloned plates. As soon as a camera on the vast network is activated, they hunt for the target. These daily patrols are co-ordinated and take priority over driving around trying to spot general bad driving because a lot of their targets are OCGs, county lines runners, car thieves etc and mostly operating on motorways.

If police just drove around hoping to chance upon someone on a mobile phone, their hit rate would be pretty low and we'd all be complaining about wasting resources. Obviously if they do chance upon erratic driving, they'll pursue, but they can't be everywhere all of the time. 

On 26/10/2025 at 09:36, march46 said:

It’s also concerning that at least one recent crash reportedly involved a police pursuit and drug search. It’s not hard to see the link between high-risk driving and wider criminal behaviour. Strong, visible traffic enforcement isn’t just about road safety - it’s about community safety in the broadest sense.

It's not nice but, if a drunk or drug driver, or any other type of criminal, is failing to stop then it will trigger a high speed pursuit. People with something to hide won't slow down when they see a cop car, they'll hit the gas, and that's what compromises community safety. The police don't want a pursuit and will frequently stand down and let the target vehicle out of their sight if they feel public safety is being compromised. 

[first mate]

Ťhe problem is that if the culprits are criminals or doing other crazy stuff, they may well be well equipped and used to evading any type of enforcement measures. Let's be honest, speed limits, cameras etc.. are not really going to impact this type of behaviour.